Krešimir Ćosić

Krešimir Ćosić was born in Zagreb and raised in the basketball-crazed coastal town of Zadar, Croatia. Standing 6 feet 11 inches tall, Ćosić defied the rigid positional thinking of the era: instead of staying anchored in the post, he brought the ball up the court like a point guard, dribbled through presses, passed with no-look wizardry, and shot from the perimeter, fundamentally revolutionizing the center position.

Recruited to Brigham Young University (BYU) in Utah in 1969, Ćosić became the first foreign superstar in American collegiate basketball, earning two All-American selections and leading the Cougars to two Western Athletic Conference titles. Despite being drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers with lucrative contracts on the table, Ćosić famously chose to return to Yugoslavia, stating: 'If I went to the NBA, I would just be another player with a lot of money. In Zadar, I am building something for my people.'

With Zadar and later Virtus Bologna, Ćosić won six Yugoslav league titles and two Italian championships. As the undisputed on-court general of Yugoslavia's national team, he played in four Olympic finals, winning gold at Moscow 1980, along with two FIBA World Championship titles (1970, 1978). In 1996, he became only the second international player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. After Croatian independence, he served as a diplomat in Washington, D.C., until his death from lymphoma in 1995.